Beginning Tuesday, the Apple service will make material from “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” available for the first time via digital download, including “best of” compilations and 16 edited episodes.

The deal continues efforts to mine the library by Carson Entertainment Group, which is under the stewardship of Jeff Sotzing, Carson’s nephew and a producer on the show during its run.

“I’m always amazed that the show continues to have demand, but it does,” Sotzing said, adding that because of clearance issues “it does take a little legwork to make that stuff available.”

In addition to the compilations and selected episodes, iTunes is also offering 50 “alert tones” culled from the show, including catchphrases like “Here’s Johnny!,” “Hi-yo!” and “We’ll be right back,” also available to be downloaded.

Individual episodes are being priced at $1.99, with $2.99 for the “Best of” compilations.

Carson was especially foresighted in negotiating for ownership of his program — leveraging the fact that in its heyday, “The Tonight Show” accounted for roughly a fifth of the network’s profits — although he never could have envisioned its availability on iPads and other new content and distribution streams.

Almost ALL of the “TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON” episodes telecast from 1962 -1971 were wiped (original quad tapes erased). However, the audio survives as recorded off the air on 1/4″ reel to reel audio tape, direct line, at the time of the original broadcast. Hundreds of these peerless audio air checks are archived by ARCHIVAL TELEVISION AUDIO, Inc. (www.atvaudio.com) Peerless JC monologues, skits, and interviews EXIST including those by Marlon Brando, Allan Sherman, Glen Ford, Joan Crawford, Woody Allen, Sterling Hayden, Huntz Hall, Robert Taylor, Walter F. O’Malley, Hal Roach, Ed Wynn, Rod Serling, memorial show related to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, first and second Anniversary Shows, hundreds of others.
A treasure trove of the earliest Johnny Carson Tonight Shows not existing in any entertainment museum, or in the archive of the Carson Entertainment Group.